Tribalism

Over the past few months tribalism has been headline news, with public figures claiming their tribal group has been wronged or marginalized. In response their political opponents respond by saying that pursuing tribal interests through politics is tribalism. What is tribalism and how should the Christian think about it?

What is a tribe? A tribe is a grouping of people usually linked by common descent, culture, language and land. The Bemba people for example are a group of people who are descendants of a group of migrants from the Luba-Lunda Kingdom and who share a common culture that includes the Bemba language. What is tribalism? Tribalism is exercising some form of social discrimination against members of other tribes. The root of tribalism is based on the beliefs that ones tribal affiliation is their primary identity and that a person’s tribe is culturally and morally superior. Tribalism can be expressed in several ways. Take for example if a member of the Tonga tribe socialized exclusively (or preferentially) with members of their own tribe. Tribalism can also occur in the workplace if a person in a position of influence uses tribe as a basis for making recruitment and promotional decisions. Tribalism can also be expressed in more negative ways such as genocide.

When we think of tribe Biblically we should realize that though we may be part of a group with a common decent that goes back a few hundred years, it is a fact that “He made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth” (Acts17:26) This means that any persons primary identity is that they are a human being created in the image of God just like any other person. Therefore, while my fellow Bemba is my brother by tribal decent, ultimately all mankind are my brothers by virtue of common decent in Adam.

The Christian is also to bear in mind that in the Church despite a diversity of tribal and racial origins there is unity in Christ (Galatians 3:28). It follows from this that there is no place for tribal discrimination in the Church. Indeed for a Christian their main identity ought to be the fact that they are Christians as opposed to their being a member of a particular tribe. In my opinion, if this truth were embraced by all professing Christians we would not have denominations that are primarily associated with particular tribes. Further, I believe it would eliminate the practice of such Churches using the language of their preference as opposed to the language commonly used in an area. (It must be noted however, that these facts do not mean that tribe is non existent nor has no value. Indeed, in the Bible part of the glory of the Kingdom of God is that people from all nations, tribes and languages will be saved from the judgment of God. - Revelation 14:6)

I believe that there are other aspects of tribalism that the Zambian Christian ought to consider. For example some people practice tribalism because they feel that their tribe is culturally or ethically superior to other tribes. As we assess this we must bear certain Biblical facts in mind. First, we should remember that Adam’s sin has extended to all men and there is no person or group of people that are less affected by Adam’s sin (Romans 5:12, 18). Therefore in an absolute sense no group of people is morally superior to another. It is however true that; a particular group of people may be guiltier of a particular sin or set of sins than other groups. One of the most famous examples of this is the case of Sodom and Gomorrah in Genesis 18 & 19. This group of people was so sinful that God decided to exercise judgment on them in particular. Secondly, all men by virtue of being created in the image of God have some innate sense of right and wrong (Romans 2:14 &15). It is this sense of right and wrong that allows people to behave in an ethical manner. The Bible and personal experience tell us that not all people or groups of people are equally virtuous. Certain people on a purely human level are regarded as being unusually virtuous. This fact can also be true of groups of people. It follows that a tribe’s culture may incorporate and stress particular moral virtues to a greater extent than the culture of other tribes.

So how is the Christian to respond to mankind’s common grace and common falleness? Firstly, we ought to respond with a sense of cultural humility. Whatever the moral virtues of ones tribe, it must be realized that our tribe comprises sinful descendants of Adam just like any other tribe. We therefore, ought not to feel or act morally superior to any other group of people. Secondly, in light of the fact that our tribe has its own cultural sins we ought to repent of the sins of our culture and show others how certain cultural practices are sinful. In the New Testament we see Paul urge Titus to warn Cretan Christians to repent of the sins of their culture. (Titus 1:12, 13). The Christian will therefore not hold on to sinful cultural practices such as polygamy by virtue of the practice being a part of their culture.

A further factor that should shape Christian thought about tribe is that tribes are temporary facts of life. Acts 17 reveals God has limited the time that every nation and group of people will flourish and prosper. In the case of Zambia, this is seen in the fact that Zambia’s current tribes have existed for a few hundred years. Before this our ancestors were members of other tribal groupings. As such our cultures are time bound and dynamic. This gives the Christian freedom to discard non productive cultural practices in favour of new practices that have been developed locally or adopted from other tribes and nations.

Finally, the Christian’s primary pride should be in the fact that they a part of a group of people described as “a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a Holy nation, a people for God’s own possession, so that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who has called you out of darkness into the His marvelous light”. (1 Peter 2:3) In relating to non Christians the Christian will display humility since they are a member of this “chosen people” by the grace of God and before they were a member of God’s people they were rebels against God just like everyone else. Lastly, as a member of God’s people the Christian will be obedient to their King’s commission to tell the world the good news that people from every tribe and tongue can escape the coming judgment by trusting in Christ.